Curious what people think is the best "value" high end speaker (~5K to 15K)

@cd318 I’ve run a set of version 3.3 Orions for about 10 years now and have had more than one visitor complement them as being of reference quality. The current version, with the SEAS bass drivers is even better, but I’m OK to stay with what I have.

I’ve heard the LX521 at the home of Seigfried Linkwitz and I found them to be even better in some ways. Seigfried had worked at Hewlett-Package designing microwave transmission towers. He viewed loudspeakers as audio frequency transmission towers and had very strong ideas about dispersion and open baffle concepts.

The LX521 has an unusual shape to hold the high frequency drivers, which Siegfried arrived at through much experimentation and measurement. He felt it improved upon the Orion in its dispersion characteristics.

Both designs image very well. Some feel that the LX521 images better than the Orions, but I have no complaints about mine.

The LX521 just is not an attractive looking loudspeaker. If you go to the Linkwitz Lab website, you can find photo galleries for both the Orion and LX521 and see what the very many builders have done. There are a lot of fine woodworkers out there. The Orion is a much more attractive loudspeaker visually and that may or may not be an issue for you.

Because the Orion has been around a lot longer, you can find them used from time to time, at a VERY attractive price - typically around $3000 to $3500 depending on the version and who built them. I have never seen the LX521 for sale used anywhere. Build a pair of those and you will never have a visitor leave without envy.

Neither of these designs is difficult to build. If you don’t have access to a wood shop or otherwise are not a woodworker yourself, any cabinet maker could knock out a pair for you for a reasonable amount of money. Mounting drivers and wiring then up is more than easy.

I would set either the Orion or the LX521 up against any of the $50,000 monkey coffins out there. They remind me a lot of the big MBL and Avalon Acoustics systems, which are at least 10 times the cost.

If you dig around the Linkwitz Lab website, there is a list of Orion owners willing to entertain visitors.  I live in the San Francisco area and welcome any who wish to hear my rig.

@firstnot

What did you think of the speakers in your list?

My last speaker shopping endeavor about a year ago, was A/Bing the Focal Electra 1038 ($10k) to the Aria 948 ($5k)....  Switching between them side by side, I actually preferred the Aria 948 at half the price... they were more dynamic & lively.  The 1038 felt a bit over engineered... so controlled that the music was not exciting.  The Aria's weakness was that the tweeter fell short of the Beryllium in the Electra.  NOW that Focal has married the Be tweeter to the Flax cone drivers in the Kanta series, that should be a great match.... still a bit too pricey for me though.  I thought the Aria was a great deal with nice cosmetics.  The dual 8" woofers in the 948 had more kick than the 3x7" woofers of the 1038, in my demo.   I've tried to like the new B&W's... but I don't. 

"I've tried to like the new B&W's... but I don't."

This is getting interesting. A speaker company with a long tradition of building really esteemed products gets more than just one "not my kind" response on this thread. Again, no haters but just not impressed ones. I thought I was the only one out there. I guess it is time to come out of the closet. Maybe higher models are significantly different?